If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.
This problem has grown and grown ... in fact it's grown exponentially over the past four decades. It is the direct result of putting TRIBALISM ahead of PATRIOTISM.
Most Americans under the age of 60 are spoiled, lazy, and completely disconnected from their fathers' and grandfathers' America - a society with a shared sense of duty and responsibility. This unspoken duty permeated that America, a selfless, universal sense of duty. "Draft-dodging" was virtually unheard of in WWII. For heaven's sake, movie stars often fought in combat ... Jimmy Stewart masked his identity to fly dozens of missions in B-24 bombers over Europe. That sense of duty - so pervasive 40 years ago - completely bewilders today's American. They mostly turn their heads sideways like the RCA dog when they're told about it.
The change came in the mid-1960s. Something perverted America's sense of duty and responsibility. Was it prosperity? Television? Vietnam? JFK? Peter Paul and Mary? The exact cause is a matter for debate, but we do have ways to measure the change: We know that in the 1950s, less than 15% of teens answered "Yes" to the question 'ARE YOU A SPECIAL PERSON?" That figure skyrocketed to over 75% by the 1980s.
And THAT is why these 21st-Century conservatives just accept the corruption and shrug their off all manner of immorality. They don't share their fathers' values, they never said they did! Morals don't move them ... they're moved by a base form of human competition ... TRIBALISM. That's why they don't share their fathers' vigilance when dealing with the Russians. That's why Trump's lies make them yawn, but his nicknames make them orgasmic. That's why a clearly disturbed person like Jeanine Pirro is given a TV show. It's tribalism. Truth be told, most of them don't really get worked up over abortion, hell, most of them aren't really Christian. Those are just props they use in the competition, the object of which is - I'm guessing - to make us crazy, like the chimpanzee who "wins" when the other chimp goes flying around the enclosure, screaming all the way.
It's not the actual ISSUES that move them ... they win when we exhibit symptoms of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Politics themselves are nothing more than the environment in which they do battle. That explains why Richard Nixon was a provably more liberal president than Clinton, or even Obama. Their "Conservatism" as we knew it ... their "Patriotism" as we knew it ... they were dead and gone by the time LBJ 'would not accept another term as your president.'
Unprecedented, bountiful resources, along with the warm security of two broad oceans, Minuteman missile silos and Casey Kasem's Top 40, together left post-war Americans with no motivating issues to animate them. And being "animated" is a fundamental human need. Something had to be found - and we found it ... way back In the primitive, reptilian part of our brains.
We found our fundamental impulse to divide ourselves by drawing a line in the sand and battling over it.
And it's working.
And we needed it.
It's a corollary to the axiom, "A man can bear with almost any 'how,' as long as he understands and accepts the 'why'"
I say we give that rat bastard Trump a heapin' helpin' of WHY today!
And maybe, just maybe, someday we'll lift our heads up, above the fray, and realize that once we understand what truly motivates our enemy ... that's the moment the war will be over.
Repubs here will simply look at this like............
Right or wrong, a large majority of voters believe this is simply business as usual in DC. Nothing like this will make any difference. I'm starting to wonder what actually possibly could.
With the advent of the the phony Whitewater “scandal,” independent counsel Ken Starr had carte blanche for years to investigate literally anything concerning the Clintons. Nevertheless, at the end of a protracted fishing expedition in which no stone was unturned, all he could come up with was a lie about a consensual sexual affair. However, this was enough to warrant an impeachment referral as far as Republicans were concerned.
Now, fast forward to tRump: Non-stop, in-your-face evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors - crickets from Rethugs.
You should thank your lucky stars your House leadership is smart enough to remember.
Because a majority of the American people saw the fishing expedition for what it was, and, in spite of the Rethugs’ best efforts, Clinton was a popular president.
None of the above can be said for President Pokahooker.
Comment